A lovely puzzle from Orpheus, with plenty of trickery but no obscurities and all pitched at an accessible QC level. Hard as it is to predict the hive reaction, I came in below my average at 06:57 and so I hope this will produce lots of happy solvers. Fingers crossed and away we go …
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Engineers involved with plant’s rebirth (13) |
| REINCARNATION – Orpheus led me properly down the garden path here. “Involved” provoked in me, no doubt as intended, a knee-jerk reaction that this was an anagram, and “plant’s rebirth” is 13 letters … so obviously this was an anagram. Many fruitless attempts later – of course it isn’t an anagram! It’s RE for “engineers” + IN for “involved with” (not actually in Collins or Chambers but a near miss and fair enough, I think) + CARNATION for “plant”. 1-0 Orpheus. | |
| 8 | South American guerrilla leader’s second game (5) |
| CHESS – CHE is the customary guerrilla leader, generously clued today. The first S comes from the possessive in the clue (“leader‘s“, so CHE’S with a silent apostrophe) and the second S is indicated by “second”. | |
| 9 | Tenniel could be so merciful and forbearing (7) |
| LENIENT -anagram (“could be so”) of “Tenniel”. Sir John Tenniel was a Victorian cartoonist and illustrator, most famous for his illustrations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel. | |
| 10 | Husband in motor publicity initially enduring mockery (7) |
| CHARADE – H for “husband”, which goes inside (“in”) CAR AD for “motor publicity”, finishing off with E for “initially enduring”. Phew. Here “mockery” is used as a noun meaning an inadequate imitation of something. “A complete charade/mockery”. | |
| 11 | Failing of Scandinavian nomads, by the sound of it (5) |
| LAPSE – sounds like Lapps. | |
| 13 | Subtraction of money? It’s what we infer (9) |
| DEDUCTION – either a definition with a cryptic hint or a double definition, the first being by example. Take your pick. I’m not committing, I’ve used invisible underlining for the first half so I’m bulletproof. I’ve got enough points from the Clue Police on my licence already, thank you very much. | |
| 17 | Racecourse a northerner identifies? (5) |
| ASCOT – A + SCOT | |
| 19 | Fellow appearing repeatedly with a leguminous plant (7) |
| ALFALFA – ALF x 2 is the “fellow appearing repeatedly” (my first thought was a double F and I took a while to shake that off, so this was my LOI) + A (“with a”). “Leguminous” is a fantastic word. 2-0 Orpheus. | |
| 20 | Look closely at creepy-crawly crossing entrance to park (7) |
| INSPECT – INSECT around P (“entrance to park”). | |
| 22 | A legal right for a foreigner (5) |
| ALIEN -A + LIEN. As in the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, currently being dusted off across the Pond. | |
| 23 | Boxer’s dad securing time at last with rowing crew (13) |
| FEATHERWEIGHT – in my experience as an amateur boxer, a billion years ago, the FEATHERWEIGHTs were always very tough indeed. I think it came from a lifetime of being teased as the little guy. FATHER for “dad”, inside which (“securing”) goes E (“time at last”), then W for “with”, then EIGHT for “rowing crew”. Generous of Orpheus to including “rowing”, which made EIGHT a write-in and then it all clicked. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Elaborate style originally rousing one famous clown (6) |
| ROCOCO – RO for “originally rousing one” + COCO the Clown, fresh from his appearance last Saturday. ROCOCO is a style of art, decoration and architecture characterised by elaborate ornamentation and colour. The word is a playful corruption of the French “rocaille”, a style of decoration built around shell and leaf motifs. Orpheus loses a point here for not checking in the Setters’ Common Room whether anyone had used Coco recently. 2-1. | |
| 2 | Unusually nice lad in charge of N Atlantic island (9) |
| ICELANDIC – anagram (“unusually”) of “nice lad” + IC for “in charge”. | |
| 3 | Extremely concerned about upper-class celebrity’s sauce (7) |
| CUSTARD – CD for “extremely concerned“, which goes “about” U for “upper-class” + STAR for “celebrity”. What a good clue. | |
| 4 | Theme park feature’s period of ups and downs (6-7) |
| ROLLER-COASTER – double definition. | |
| 5 | University abandoning yearly record (5) |
| ANNAL – ANN{u}AL. “The ANNALs of Tacitus” used to be standard stuff in school , as indeed was scratching out one of the Ns on the spine of the textbooks. | |
| 6 | Fish having organs of sight, reportedly? (3) |
| IDE – the IDE (aka the orfe) is a fish which shares a tank in the CrosswordLand Zoo with the eft and the smelt. It sounds like (“reportedly”) “eyed”, i.e. “having eyes”. | |
| 7 | Spice Girl supporting teachers’ union (6) |
| NUTMEG – ooo get you Orpheus, down wiv da kidz. A neat illustration of the need to lift and separate. NUT for “teachers’ union” + underneath (“supporting”) is MEG for the “girl”. I’m awarding a point for a 90s pop reference which isn’t Blur or Oasis, so 3-1 Orpheus. | |
| 12 | Strange gap in Nell’s wall surfacing (9) |
| PANELLING -anagram (“strange”) of “gap in Nell”. | |
| 14 | Arouse trendy sweetheart (7) |
| INFLAME – IN for “trendy” + FLAME for “sweetheart”. | |
| 15 | Row involving a restaurant’s first bill of fare (6) |
| TARIFF – TIFF for “row”, inside which (“involving”) go A and R (“restaurant’s first”). The definition surprised me but is supported by the usual sources. | |
| 16 | Titled man losing heart in Greater London borough (6) |
| BARNET – “baronet” without the central letter (“losing heart”). The North London borough of BARNET has held a fair since 1588, when it was first licensed by Elizabeth the First. It was originally for the sale of livestock and was the biggest such fair in Britain, with tens of thousands of animals being traded. Now it is for pleasure only. BARNET Fair is of course CRS for “hair”. | |
| 18 | Some unfortunate Ethiopian’s dentures, perhaps (5) |
| TEETH – hidden (“some”) in “unfortunate Ethopian’s”. What an excellent surface, bravo and COD from me. | |
| 21 | Health resort in southern Pennsylvania (3) |
| SPA – S for “southern” + PA for “Pennsylvania”, currently the world’s most famous swing state. | |
Like others, I was stumped by IDE. I assume it is one of those words that are found living in crosswords and hardly anywhere else. A useful word for me to learn.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
We have had a run of proper QC recently. I am hoping this will continue.
I started terribly with this, no idea why unless perhaps my brain simply wasn’t switched on. Finished in a below-average 12:47.
Thank you for a very entertaining blog!
Disregarding the “annal” joke by our blogger, I concur this was a kinder surprise from Orpheus. Nice!
Charged through it but just could not decide between ICE and ISE. For me the “having” was just a link word. IDE was just unguessable. It’s one thing using bizarrely rare words as part of a longer clue, but when the setter was left with I – E, why not choose ICE, IKE or IRE ?
8:04, a very fast time for me, reporting in from swingin’ southern PA, and it shoulda coulda been faster if I were really with it today. A top-to-bottom solve with only a slight hitch at PANELLING, where (due to personal life events) I wanted to put PLASTER… oops, doesn’t fit or parse. Not sure I’ve ever had a solve, even my one or two faster ones, where I didn’t need to revisit a clue, so I’m a bit giddy.
Lots of entertaining clues, but I liked REINCARNATION best.
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar!
10 mins, so I still can’t achieve single figures.
Big crossword a nightmare after this. Got about half in 1.5 hours, so no light at the end of my tunnel.
What an awful week!
PS Having now read blog for big crossword, I am feeling very ignorant and out of my depth. ☹️☹️☹️
Would have been a rare sub-10 and a slightly rarer sub-9, coming in at 8:59, but unfortunately I am not familiar enough with the arts to not unthinkingly put in RICOCO. Oh, well, at least it wasn’t quite a pb. Thanks all.
Re 2 down, shouldn’t the clue be “Unusually nice lad in charge of N Atlantic islander”?